JUSTICE FOR SALE – HUMILIATION OF THE SUPREME COURT OF NIGERIA         

Uzor Maxim Uzoatu          

Nothing is sacred again in this benighted country. This is indeed a very bad season for what otherwise is the hallowed apex court in the land. The Supreme Court ought to at all times be treated with utmost respect, but not in these shores. It is a common belief that there is no appeal in a case the Supreme Court has had a say in. The loss of a case at the Supreme Court leaves the loser with only one option: take your case to God!

This commonsensical reality has been turned upside down by the temerity of ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo’s erstwhile domestic assistant Andy Uba who in his desperation to rule Anambra State is deigning to make the Court of Appeal superintend over the Supreme Court. The mere fact that the appellate court agreed to hear the spurious case at all amounts to a slap on the face of the apex court in the land, the ultimate humiliation of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.  

Why on God’s earth would the Court of Appeal sitting in Enugu entertain this Andy Uba case that has failed three or so times at the Supreme Court? There is more to this than meets the eye. The appellate court was due to give a ruling on the vexatious case on Thursday, November 5 but had to defer it to November 13, thus keeping the entire nation waiting with bated breath. It is no longer a matter of Anambra State being on trial; the entire nation and its respected institutions are being dragged in the mud. Going behind the back of the Supreme Court to get justice at the Court of Appeal is the most gruesome hara-kiri of the judiciary as brewed by the irresponsible power-monger made stupendously rich under the corrupt watch of ex-President Obasanjo.  

The Supreme Court should share a good dose of the blame in this matter as it has not sufficiently asserted its constitutional authority. Andy Uba actually had the effrontery to initially ask the Supreme Court to swallow its own vomit through his suit in which he wanted the revered justices to reverse their earlier ruling of asking the fake governor to vacate the Anambra Government House. If the Supreme Court had sent him to prison for abusing the court procedure I doubt that the Uba fellow would today have the liver to bring the Supreme Court to trial at the lower appellate court. 

The judiciary ought to operate like the nitrogen cycle in which there is a core and an authority holds the chain together. The Supreme Court lords ought to call their colleagues at the appellate court to order before they do permanent damage to the Nigerian judiciary. If Andy Uba succeeds with his current harebrained escapade, nothing will stop a Nwosu or a Musa or an Ayodele from going to a customary court in one backwater to quash the ruling of the Supreme Court of Nigeria! It all stems from a bad precedence and Nigeria must not be allowed to suffer this heinous indignity. 

The sophistic argument that all electoral matters ought to end at the appellate court can easily be dismissed as hokum because the Supreme Court had ruled from the very beginning that Andy Uba contested for a gubernatorial post that was not vacant. It is akin to purporting to build a house in a vacuum. The lawyers and the judges egging Andy Uba on must look for better lies to manufacture. Even if Andy Uba manages to wangle a tacky verdict awarding him an unconstitutional “governor-in-waiting”, incumbent Governor Peter Obi should quickly proceed to the Supreme Court asking the august body to award him his constitutionally guaranteed right to go for a second term in office. This way, an election will surely hold in Anambra State and the imposter will end up as Governor-Never-To-Be! Andy Uba is surely in a no-win situation, and the appellate court can only go down in utter disgrace if it should magically give him a positive verdict. The Supreme Court needs to assert itself with greater authority henceforth as not to allow the likes of Andy Uba to suborn the due process.  

It is cool by me to recall the words of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Idris Kutigi in dismissing Andy Uba’s case earlier: “I have come to the undoubted conclusion that the motion is a thorough abuse of judicial process in that the validity of the Notice of Appeal filed in the Court of Appeal on 18/4/2009 had been firmly decided by this court on merit. It is trite law that there should be an end to litigation and the court cannot re-open this case which has come before us three or even four times. Further, in order to foreclose a further gross abuse of the processes of this court this application will be dismissed and it is hereby dismissed. This court regards this matter as closed.”  

Notwithstanding that the Supreme Court has ruled on the matter as closed the implacable Andy Uba is back at the Court of Appeal appealing feverishly to the lower body to upstage their superiors. Wonders, as they say, shall never end: Only in Nigeria! It is straight out of the Theatre of the Absurd that the old men and women of the Supreme Court are allowing themselves to be tossed hither and thither like a yoyo by the youngish get-rich-quick moneybag. My pity is with the wizened legal minds of our land that have been assaulted and raped with impunity by way of the political legerdemain of the land. 

This humiliation of the Supreme Court of Nigeria is dangerous to the polity in very ominous ways. It is the most shameful mark of Nigeria as a failed state that the Supreme Court of the land and the Court of Appeal have been turned into veritable jokers working at cross-purposes. Judicial anarchy is loosed on this woebegone land so unloved by her leaders. Soon the barefaced law of the jungle will supervene if the likes of Andy Uba are not stopped in their tracks. The time to start stopping them is now no matter the antics of their devil-may-care spin-doctors. The troika made up of the retiring President of the Court of Appeal Umaru Abdullahi, presiding Justice J.S. Ngwuta of the Enugu Appeal Court, and Andy Uba’s counsel Wole Olanipekun cannot get away with toying with the destiny of this nation. It stares us all in the face now that what is not worth dying for is not worth living for.